The use of percutaneous medical devices, such as catheters, which are normally used in medical practice to infuse or withdraw fluids and to monitor metabolic functions, cause a semi-permanent breach in the skin. This wound provides a path for normal skin microorganisms to invade along the catheter wound tract into deeper tissues, thus threatening the therapy being utilized and the health of the patient. Moreover, the potential for antimicrobial infection along the catheter tract is increased by movement of the catheter and by bacterial proliferation beneath the wound dressing which is usually used at the catheter exit site. Moreover tissues contacting the catheter are in a state of chronic inflammation, thus impairing the normal defense mechanisms against bacterial infection.
Thus it is an object of the present invention to stabilize a catheter at the wound site.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an antimicrobial wound dressing at the exit site which can protect the wound site from the environment.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a device which can be used both to anchor a catheter and serve as a wound dressing, but which is disposable and readily replaced as needed without removing the catheter or without undue disruption at the wound site.
These and other objects will be apparent from the following description and from the practice of the invention.